What's the story?

FLIGHT 29 DOWN follows the travails of a handful of teens from Los Angeles who have gone on an eco-camping trip to Micronesia. When their plane is downed, the group must go beyond its comfort zone in order to survive. But unlike adult shows such as Lost and Survivor, which clearly inspired this program, the characters here are given little to work with, and survival seems like a second thought.

Is it any good?

Flight 29 Down is cotton candy for the brain, and no lessons in courage and strength will be learned when human suffering isn't written into the script. Kids watching this show might appreciate the escape that it allows them, but they may not be so easily duped by the cheesy video soliloquies that the passengers record about their experiences. Parents may roll their eyes but will probably appreciate that nothing terribly offensive occurs here.

Rather than being scared out of their wits when they endure an airplane crash, the passengers of Flight 29 regret that the comforts of home are no longer available to them. "I want a pizza!" one character exclaims. But in wake of true tragedies like tsunamis and hurricanes, such whining about pizza rings false. "Staying alive is obviously going to take a lot of work," comments Jackson (Johnny Pacar), the elected group leader. If someone in the group had yelled "duh" in response, then this program might have gotten more interesting.

Talk to your kids about ...

Families can talk about how realistic the series is or isn't. How would real survivors react in the face of such a tragedy? What do kids think about how the characters work together? What are some basic survival techniques?

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